One-point agenda

By Bob Houghton’s own admission, a coach when talking to the media is talking to his own players. Yet the much-respected chief coach of the Indian football team seemed to conveniently forget his audience when he suggested that his days with the national team are numbered.

“To be honest, it might be time for someone else (to take over)," said Houghton when asked if he would continue even beyond the Asian Cup 2011, where India are resurfacing for the first time in, hold your breath, 25 years.

“You have to be realistic. If India goes out of the Asian Cup with no points, there’s going to be an enormous outcry to sack the coach,” explained Houghton, who famously took little-known Swedish club, Malmo FC, to the final of the 1979 European Cup.

Such admission — even if he is contracted with the National team till 2013 — you could argue is as brutally honest as it gets, but for the Indian team preparing for the continent’s soccer World Cup it was like a dagger plunged through their hearts.

Ever since qualifying for the continent’s quadrennial showpiece in Doha, nothing else seemed to have mattered for Indian football. Houghton, sometimes not in a manner entirely pleasant, has suggested more of the same, keeping a group of India’s best players together for seven months, ignoring hypocritical claims from clubs and virtually forcing the All India Football Federation (AIFF) to spend crores of rupees in the team’s preparations with extensive camps in Portugal, and now Dubai. That most of the spending is from the BCCI’s one-time dole of Rs 12.5 crore is an altogether different tale.

In reality, the Indian team has only peered through powerlessly since July when the thirtysomethings got together. In the seven friendlies that India has played as part of the Asian Cup preparations, we have won just two, one against lowly ranked Vietnam and the other against a severely-depleted Namibia. Of course, both victories have been secured in the comforts of what we call “home” in football.

The defeats have left a rather bad taste in the mouth. The 1-6 humiliation at the hands of Yemen, in particular, was hard to digest. The match was supposed to be India’s test of character and strength. Houghton, if anyone cares to remember, felt Yemen were “similar to Bahrain”, India’s group opponents at Doha, and if Yemen could leave us with the feeling that the emperor had when it was pointed out that he had no clothes on, Doha could be even worse.

You can tell it’s a sorry state of affairs when India– and you can figure that out from Houghton’s assertions — will be satisfied with simply not being beaten badly in at least two of three group matches, and be competitive in the final game against Bahrain. But for all you know, no one is giving India a chance in hell to leave a mosquito bite, forget a shark attack, at the Asian Cup 2011.

All of this is not entirely down to Houghton. In fact, the British coach, now settled in South Africa, seemed to be just what the doctor ordered to get India out of the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Since joining in the summer of 2006, he managed to do just that to a great extent, winning two Nehru Cups and qualifying for the Asian Cup with a chanceless triumph in the 2008 Asian Challenge Cup.

Since Houghton’s arrival, the profile of the Indian football team, too, has undergone a sea change. India are playing international friendlies more often, much work seems to have been done on the youth front and the national team, at least on the surface, is getting the attention it deserves. We have tasted quite a few successes too even though Houghton has never shied away from the fact that he has picked and chosen his opponents.

It is also not Houghton’s fault that India have been clubbed in inarguably the toughest possible group you could think of. What chance of securing at least a point when clubbed against three of Asia’s six top-ranked teams: Australia, South Korea and Bahrain?

There is no denying India’s qualification to the Asian Cup 2011 has raised both the profile of the game and expectations, not all of which is realistic, though. Whichever way you look at it, the tournament is crucial for more reasons than one. It could either provide Indian football with the kiss of life that it so badly needs, or alternatively leave it lying flat on its face.

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DISCLAIMER : Views expressed above are the author's own.

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Marcus Mergulhao is a special correspondent at The Times of India, Goa. He was attracted to volleyball at first and even played the game at the international level, but, not surprisingly, in a place where sports starts and ends with football, the beautiful game remains an object of admiration.

Marcus Mergulhao is a special correspondent at The Times of India, Goa. He was attracted to volleyball at first and even played the game at the internationa. . .

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Marcus Mergulhao is a special correspondent at The Times of India, Goa. He was attracted to volleyball at first and even played the game at the international level, but, not surprisingly, in a place where sports starts and ends with football, the beautiful game remains an object of admiration.

Marcus Mergulhao is a special correspondent at The Times of India, Goa. He was attracted to volleyball at first and even played the game at the internationa. . .